Market consolidates after yesterday’s strong breakout.
NIFTY opened the day at 16,318, up by 58 pts. Similar to recent days, the 16,400 level acted as a strong resistance and the index fell to the 16,200 range. NIFTY ended the day at 16,240, down by 19 points or 0.12%.
BANK NIFTY started the day at 34,448, up by 146 pts. After the first half consolidation, the index fell sharply towards 34,100 levels, which acted as a good resistance yesterday. BANK NIFTY ended the day at 34,163, down by 138 points or 0.40%.
NIFTY FMCG (+1.2%), NIFTY Pharma (+1%), NIFTY PSU Bank (-1.5%) and NIFTY Realty (-1.7%) were the indices with notable changes.
Japan and Taiwan markets closed in the green while China and Hong Kong closed flat. European markets are currently trading flat.
Today’s Moves
FMCG and Pharma stocks did well during the day. Tata Consumer (+2.7%), Hindustan Unilever (+2%), Cipla (+2%) and Divislab (+1.4%) closed in the top gainers of NIFTY 50 from these sectors.
Granules (+4.9%), Auropharma (+4.4%) and Biocon (+2.2%) were other gainers from the pharma index.
MCX (+6.5%) gained for the third day in a row after announcing their Q4 results. The commodity exchange also said it has received approval from SEBI for introducing monthly options in gold.
IOC (-5.1%) fell sharply after announcing a 26% fall in YoY profit numbers for the last quarter. Hindustan Petro (-4.7%) and BPCL (-3%) hit fresh 52-week lows.
LalPathLab (-6%) hit a fresh 52-week low after announcing poor Q4 results. Meanwhile, Petronet (+4.8%) moved up after reporting a 14% YoY increase in net profits.
Route Mobile (-14.6%) crashed with high volumes after the results announcement, while Sudarshan Chemicals (+20%-UC) shot up during the day.
DeltaCorp (-5.9%) crashed on news that India may levy 28% GST on casinos.
Yes Bank (+4.5%) gained after news that private equity firms Carlyle and Advent are in talks to buy a stake in the bank.
Sugar stocks gained after the Cabinet approved the change of ethanol blending target of 20% in petrol from FY30 to FY26.
Markets Ahead
NIFTY consolidated in the day after yesterday’s breakout. It was interesting to see how Reliance was still in the green and even tried to give a breakout.
Looking at the open interest(OI) data for tomorrow, put addition has happened but we can see far more calls being written in the market today. The 16,400 and 16,500 calls doubled their OI from yesterday, with more than 2 lakh contracts at the latter strike.
More call options being written indicate the level might act as a resistance tomorrow for the weekly expiry.
In international news, Finland and Sweden submit applications to join NATO. Russia has taken over yet another city in Ukraine as war rages on.
The Indian rupee weakening against the dollar is something we’ll have to be worried about. But clearly, this is giving strength to pharma stocks.
What are your predictions for the weekly expiry tomorrow? Let us know in the comments section of the marketfeed app!
See you on The Stock Market Show tonight at 7 PM.